There's plenty on offer in this pretty little Cheshire village

Well connected

Whether you’ve been to Holmes Chapel or not, there’s a good chance you’ve seen it. The village sits beneath the flight path of aircraft making their way into and out of Manchester Airport, giving passengers a bird’s eye view of the leafy lanes. And those who prefer more down to earth travel are likely to have at least passed very close to the village on the M6 which rushes past a mile or so to the west of the village.

The village stands at the junction of the A50 and the A54 and also has a railway station and is home to a pleasing clutch of shops, pubs and cafes. The modern library occupies one side of the village’s shopping precinct, where parking is available and where a notice board gives information about other tourist attractions nearby.

Glorious gardens Everything’s coming up roses in Holmes Chapel at a garden which opens to the public each year. Croco Brook Farm is owned by Tatton gold medal winning garden designer John Clowes and the garden gate will be open to visitors on Saturday and Sunday September 11 and 12. The 2/3 acre garden around an old farm house has been developed since 1980 and contains impressive displays of trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants.

Check the National Garden Scheme website - www.ngs.org.uk - for more details on this and other Cheshire gardens open to visitors.

Making music Holmes Chapel is the hometown of pop superstar Harry Styles of One Direction. Prior to his X-Factor audition he did tell the programme that: 'It’s quite boring; there’s nothing much happens there’. Harry was working at W Mandeville bakery on Macclesfield Rd during this time, and it has now become a place of pilgirmage for One Direction fans over the years. For foodies it's also well worth a visit, they've been in business since 1900, so they must know what they are doing.

A stellar town Holmes Chapel may only be small but one of Cheshire biggest attractions is right on its doorstep, the hugely important Jodrell Bank observatory. The 76 meter Lovell telescope, the third largest of its kind in the world, is a major landmark as you drive to and from the village, or pass overhead.

The site isn’t just a major scientific centre, it’s also one of Cheshire’s most popular visitor attractions and alongside the dishes and telescopes there is an arboretum which contains the national collections of crab apple and mountain ash.

Worth a Luke The Grade One listed St Luke’s church stands in the centre of Holmes Chapel, its sandstone tower visible from all over the village. There has been a church on the site since the 13th century and parts of the current building date from the 1430s although the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries saw major renovation work. The church houses the oldest brass candelabra in Cheshire, dating from 1708, while an oak crest near the communion rail is even older, bearing the date 1622.